Mutterings of a Mad Woman

The dead are among us! Or so lostzombies.com would have us believe. Or, more specifically, what lostzombies.com wants you to make others believe.

Lostzombies.com is a "community generated zombie documentary" where zombie trackers and fans report sightings from around the world. The website encourages people to warn others with tales of their encounter with the undead - through written works, videos (it can be a re-enactment of a zombie sighting), audio recordings, photographs, you name it (though please make sure all content is original and not copyrighted). From these submissions, a grand documentary will be created.

Their goal? To collect 10,000 photos and 1,000 videos from zombie fans worldwide.

Hello fellow creepers! I decided to leave my computer turned off this holiday season so that I would be refreshed and ready to go once more for the new year.

Ah, New Year's Eve. While I can appreciate the affection some people have for the holiday, I generally associate it with being dragged out into the city where you're forced into cramped quarters with drunken strangers to pay too much for very little. And then you spend the end of the evening trying to get home in the freezing cold, hoping the person beside you on public transit doesn't throw up on your shoes (and people think Halloween is scary).

To be fair, I've spent the last few New Years in the comfort of a friend's home for a gathering of friends, so I shouldn't be so surly.

In the spirit of the holiday, I'll take a moment to reflect on the past year in terms of the darker delights. My Ghoul Friday had its official launch this year, and I want to thank my faithful posters (and faithful lurkers) for visiting and making it all worth while. I hope all of you have a safe and happy new year, and I look forward to seeing you in 2009 for more ghoulish discoveries and creepy creations.

I realize you don't have much room on your sleigh, but would you consider bringing me a couch from coffincouches.com for Christmas? I've been a good ghoul all year.

You don't even have to bring me this particular one. Use your own discretion and choose from the many different colours in their online catalogue. You see, Santa, not only would you be making me happy, you would also be helping the environment as most of the 18 gauge steel coffins used to make these couches are collected from funeral homes local to the company.

I realize that going all the way down to Southern California and then straight up to Southern Ontario might be a bit out of your way in regards to your usual route, but think about it, please?

When it comes to fetishes and horror, it's hard to compete with the Japanese. Yoshitaka Kawakami (or Yock as he is sometimes called) is a perfect example of why the Japanese never fail to push the boundaries on both these genres.

While Yock produces some work that North Americans associate with Japan - cute yet odd creatures (like the piggy bank pictured right) - Yock mainly focuses on high school girls as a motif in his fetish works.

It generally takes something substantially unnerving to make me uneasy in my skin. Yock's collection of 3D computer graphics, which he started producing in 2002, makes me question where the line is for me between cool horror and simply disturbing images.

While Santa Claus is an easily identifiable figure, this horned creature might leave North Americans scratching their head (or fleeing for their life).

Meet Krampus (derived from the old German word for 'claw'), Santa's dark sidekick. While naughty children here can expect a lump of coal in their stocking if they have been particularly bad, misbehaving children in some European countries are destined to face Krampus: a goat-like, horned and hoofed demon wielding a switch (often a birch rod).

Here's a little info on Krampus, who has his own holiday on Dec. 5th each year. Since pre-Christian times, local folk have dressed up as Krampus and stormed through the streets, the bell around their waist signalling their arrival before they've even come into view. Some sources claim the march of Krampus (and Perchten, the female equivalent) helped to scare away winter, but mainly the purpose was to scare straight any misbehaving children.

Hello all! Many people living in urban areas associate the springtime with construction to improve roads. In the home haunter world, I find Christmas to be the time many haunters are working to speed traffic along - on their websites.

While my blogs have been quieter than normal the last month, it does not indicate an absence. I've been working behind the scenes to optimize images and improve some areas of the website.

This website officially launched in summer of 2008, and the focus at the time was to get content up. Now, I'm a little wiser and have a better idea of how I want things displayed. This means undertaking the painstaking task of revising the site and editing images.

So I'm still here, my little loathlies. I'm just behind the cyber curtain.

Recently, I've spent most of my time ranting and raving about the current political situation in Canada. I'm finally at the point where I think I can blog without boring my readers with my views on politics, since that's not what this website is about.

For example, I wouldn't want to get off track and complain that many Canadians don't seem to understand the basic structure of their own parliamentary system, and what the real implications are for what's happening. No sir. I wouldn't want to do that.

Instead, I will promote Playdead Cult's Christmas sale happening this Saturday December 6th from Noon to 7pm, and Sunday December 7th Noon to 5pm. They are promising new affordable art pieces of varying sizes and lots of great discounts (10% - 65% off selected items). As well, you can enjoy complimentary snacks and beverages, music, live art and screen printing and "Playdead style gift wrapping"!

And don't forget to ask Santa for a new Prime Minister. I'm asking for Don Newman.

Skulls, skulls and more skulls. Skull cars, knitted skulls, paper skulls. This is what you will find on Skull-A-Day, a website dedicated to all things cranial.

In addition to interesting and sometimes odd skull-themed pictures and blog posts, you can find free skull stencils and even skull crossword puzzles.

What started as a personal project has bloomed into an online phenomenon:

I made an orange paper skull on June 4th, 2007 and posted it online saying, 'I'm making a skull a day for a year'. I made my 365th skull on June 2nd, 2008 (and even posted a bonus skull the day after since it was a leap year!). Now in Skull-A-Day 2.0 I'm posting daily submissions from readers.

Reluctantly, I realize it's time to embrace the cheerier holiday of Christmas. I'm still not ready to bring out the decorations, but today was my first day of Christmas shopping (online, of course). Now that I have the gifts ordered, I need some wrapping paper.

Gift Shrouds (Eclectic by Design) promises 'Dark designs for wicked wrapping. Helping bats and ghouls celebrate in style'. And they deliver. Customers can choose from critters to cleavers, to lovely Victorian patterns for their holiday wrappings.

For me, the problem is I don't have many friends who would truly appreciate the paper adorning their gift as much as I would. Perhaps I'll send Santa the link.